by not_your_vase on 5/23/2025, 4:11:50 PM
It depends.
If this is some open technology, then it's rarely worth it - and I would definitely expect my developers to get proficient on their own.
But there are other, closed technologies, where such trainings can be useful. From the top of my head different Xilinx trainings come to my mind - they are pretty expensive, but they are rarely wasted money.
As a counter example, I have seen some trainings from Actimize (closed source bank-related thingies). My colleagues were very happy with them, but personally I didn't get much more out of it than what's already in the PDF manual...
by digikata on 5/23/2025, 4:20:57 PM
It really depends on the applicability of what is being trained and how good the training is. In the past, I've signed up companies for training for legal compliance, security, as well as tool/software stacks that everyone will use.
In the tool/sw case, you can do a rough estimation of time saved per attendee after receiving the training. One model of estimation is talking about a little bit of training to to knock off what would be consumed in self-learning time to get past initial stages of the tool. Something that would eat hours without the training, or be a barrier to uptake of something the org thinks it would really benefit from. Do you think that over the span of two years, the training will save say and additional two hours of time for each attendee, or raise usage by x%? Adjust numbers to suit.
In other cases, there is also estimate model that is "fast-forward" training to go very in depth & in specialized areas, but that's typically a payback calc with fewer people, but is weighed against something much longer to pickup on a self-learning arc. If its aligned with getting past specific technical barriers, this can be worth it too.
by sherdil2022 on 5/23/2025, 3:45:54 PM
What is the technology you are looking to get your team trained in?
My manager and I are considering paying for training courses for our team + possibly some engineers from other teams from a company whose technology is important to us. Our team isn't as skilled as we should be with their tech. It's been a pain to hire for people who are good at this. It'll be either 4 or 8 hrs and a 'pre-packaged' course.
In another case, there's an independent contractor / consultant who comes highly recommended who is willing and able to hold a series of sessions with our team and tune the material and focus on our needs. It'll probably be between 8-16 hours total with some flexibility.
It's not clear to me whether this kind of thing is worth it. In the first case, it'll be a 'pre-packaged' course. In the latter, it'll be an instructor who is genuinely very skilled and knowledgeable about the entire space of technologies, but costs ~3-5x.
Anyone have experiences with this kind of training?
Thanks.